So before I get carried away with my summer memories again, it's time to update on today.
Today is the day I have been working towards for the past two years: GCSE results day.
I got quite a shock, but a good one! I got 4 A*s, 6 As and 1 B. It took me a while to let it sink in, but 12 hours later, I think it finally has! All of my friends did really well, and I'm so happy for everyone! Yay ^_^
Now back to the story... Where was I..?
Sun 26/07/09
We spent our second day in Venice a bit differently. We decided to buy day passes so that we could use any of the water buses to, from, and around the island. The water buses are exactly what it says on the tin: buses, but that go on the canals. I hate boats, so I really wasn't looking forward to it.
The boat we got across to the island made me feel very sick, so it wasn't a great start to the day. But then we got on a water bus down the grand canal, which was much calmer, and by the time we got off at our stop, I had relaxed about it. We then walked around the non- touristy parts for a bit. It's really nice to get away from the main attractions, as many of the streets we were walking down were completely empty apart from us, and they were just as beautiful.
We ended up on the other side of the island, where we decided to get a waterbus across to another, smaller island: Murano.
Murano is where they make all of the famous Venetian glass. It's pretty much the same as Venice, apart from it has even more glass shops, which I didn't think was possible! Unfortunately, as it was a Sunday, we didn't get to see any glass making, but it was still nice to see all of the finished products.
Two boat trips later, and we found ourselves on the Lido, a long, thin island next to Venice. We went there because there was a beach, so, as usual, I just sat there with a towel wrapped around me.
We accidentally took the wrong boat back to Venice, so we had to take a very long boat trip around the island, but it was nice to see the island in the evening. We got to see a lot more of Venice, and I kinda tackled my hatred of boats a bit, so it was good. I absolutely love Venice, and would love to go back there one day...
Mon 27/07/09
The day of pain. After a sleepless night, a 7 am start and a three and a half hour drive, we finally arrived at our campsite in the hills, 12 km from Florence. It was a scorching hot day, which just made me feel worse, especially since I was COVERED in bites. One bite was half the size of my calf. To take my mind off it all, I read 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' whilst sitting in the small patch of shade. The campsite had a free pool, so we didn't see much of Dora and my sister Becca...
Tues 28/07/09
We had a nice lazy day: a long lie in, and then we left Dora and Becca at the pool to drive around the hills for a bit and to explore the local towns. We eventually managed to find a supermarket, in which we ending up spending more time than we expected because it was air conditioned. Then we went back to the campsite and just did nothing for the rest of the afternoon! A nice break...
And back to today, it is time for some sleep, methinks...
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Summer '09: Part Two.
Thurs 23/07/09
We decided to drive to another lake, Lake Como, because apparently it's very pretty and lovely and blah blah blah, which of course it was, as Italy is just generally very pretty. We walked through the town, which was a mixture of markets, little ice creams shops, big clothes shops, and historic buildings. We sat on the bank of the river, eating ice cream (because that's compulsory in Italy) before taking the funicular up one of the mountains.
The funicular is basically just a one carriage train that takes you from the bottom of the mountain to the top. It's quite strange though, because it is built on a diagonal. The best way to describe it is like a stairway that has been turned into a train. Imagine your stairs, with a seat at each end of each step, and windows and a roof, and that's the train. It then travels up a straight path to the top of the mountain, pulled by a pulley system, with no driver or anything. It's basically a ghost train taking you to heaven. Pretty cool.
Looking up from the bottom, we could see that there was a big house at the top of the mountain, which I thought was amazing. How did they get it up there!? So I was in for quite a shock when we reached the top and found an ENTIRE TOWN up there. Fully functioning, with shops, cafés, a post box... It was like being in a real, normal, average town, if you could just forget about the fact that the Cathedral in Como that had seemed so big before was now just a tiny dot far, far below...
We then left Como, and that night we went to a pizzeria near the campsite. My first taste of Italian pizza on the holiday! I had become quite an expert on Italian pizzas during a trip to Tuscany back in 2007, when I had the same type of pizza every day, at different restaurants in different towns. I never got bored of them, even though I only had a margherita pizza every day! The most boring of the lot! The amazing taste certainly didn't disappoint this time round, either...
Fri 24/07/09
It was soon time to leave Lugano behind and embark upon our next adventure. I have to say, I was looking forward to this part of the holiday the most, because we were heading for a place I had always wanted to go, but never thought I'd get to go to, especially this young.
Venice.
I'd heard so many fantastic stories, especially from my Dad who went there over 5 years ago, and now says it is his favourite place in the world.
But first, we had to drive for a few hours to get there. But it didn't take us too long, and we soon found a campsite on the mainland. It was a very full campsite, but we found the perfect space, right on the bank of the lagoon. Across the waves, we could see all of the landmarks of Venice. The bell tower of Saint Mark's, from there looking absolutely tiny. Another great thing about being right on the bank was that there were some HUGE carrier ships going by, and sailing quite close to the bank, so we were very close to them, which was pretty amazing.
We also made friends with some english people staying in a campervan next to us. They were four young kids with their parents, and we soon discovered that we were from the same neck of the woods. The Dad of the family played a swingball tournament with Dora (my Dad's girlfriend's daughter), and she was beating him 4 games to 3 when it got too dark to continue...
The campsite itself was my favourite of all that we stayed at, not just because of the lagoon, but also because it had a bar where they played loads of good music right into the night. My family couldn't hear it from the campervan, but I could from my tent. I love the sound of music and people having fun in the distance. It reminds me of camping when I was younger. It wasn't so good at karaoke time though...
Sat 25/07/09
Our first early morning of the holiday, but we decided that it was best so that we could see as much of Venice as possible. We took the bus to the island, which I enjoyed because I like using public transport, especially in other countries!
Venice wasn't what I expected. It was even better.
It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I thought it was really small, with just the main famous square and then a few streets leading off it. I don't know why I ever thought this, because it's pretty much the exact opposite. It's very easy to get lost there... We found the main touristy parts, like St Mark's Square, which unfortunately had some construction work going on in it, so it wasn't quite as spectacular. But we also explored the less touristy places, and found a really nice park to sit and eat the bread we bought from this tiny supermarket.
We also found the most expensive toilets on our travels so far: 1.50 euros EACH! They weren't even very good! Although the cubicles were the size of my bedroom, just with a toilet at one end.
But before this blog turns into a 'Loo Review'...
"Just one Cornetto,
Back to the present, and tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for for the past two years, so I had better get some sleep for it...
We decided to drive to another lake, Lake Como, because apparently it's very pretty and lovely and blah blah blah, which of course it was, as Italy is just generally very pretty. We walked through the town, which was a mixture of markets, little ice creams shops, big clothes shops, and historic buildings. We sat on the bank of the river, eating ice cream (because that's compulsory in Italy) before taking the funicular up one of the mountains.
The funicular is basically just a one carriage train that takes you from the bottom of the mountain to the top. It's quite strange though, because it is built on a diagonal. The best way to describe it is like a stairway that has been turned into a train. Imagine your stairs, with a seat at each end of each step, and windows and a roof, and that's the train. It then travels up a straight path to the top of the mountain, pulled by a pulley system, with no driver or anything. It's basically a ghost train taking you to heaven. Pretty cool.
Looking up from the bottom, we could see that there was a big house at the top of the mountain, which I thought was amazing. How did they get it up there!? So I was in for quite a shock when we reached the top and found an ENTIRE TOWN up there. Fully functioning, with shops, cafés, a post box... It was like being in a real, normal, average town, if you could just forget about the fact that the Cathedral in Como that had seemed so big before was now just a tiny dot far, far below...
We then left Como, and that night we went to a pizzeria near the campsite. My first taste of Italian pizza on the holiday! I had become quite an expert on Italian pizzas during a trip to Tuscany back in 2007, when I had the same type of pizza every day, at different restaurants in different towns. I never got bored of them, even though I only had a margherita pizza every day! The most boring of the lot! The amazing taste certainly didn't disappoint this time round, either...
Fri 24/07/09
It was soon time to leave Lugano behind and embark upon our next adventure. I have to say, I was looking forward to this part of the holiday the most, because we were heading for a place I had always wanted to go, but never thought I'd get to go to, especially this young.
Venice.
I'd heard so many fantastic stories, especially from my Dad who went there over 5 years ago, and now says it is his favourite place in the world.
But first, we had to drive for a few hours to get there. But it didn't take us too long, and we soon found a campsite on the mainland. It was a very full campsite, but we found the perfect space, right on the bank of the lagoon. Across the waves, we could see all of the landmarks of Venice. The bell tower of Saint Mark's, from there looking absolutely tiny. Another great thing about being right on the bank was that there were some HUGE carrier ships going by, and sailing quite close to the bank, so we were very close to them, which was pretty amazing.
We also made friends with some english people staying in a campervan next to us. They were four young kids with their parents, and we soon discovered that we were from the same neck of the woods. The Dad of the family played a swingball tournament with Dora (my Dad's girlfriend's daughter), and she was beating him 4 games to 3 when it got too dark to continue...
The campsite itself was my favourite of all that we stayed at, not just because of the lagoon, but also because it had a bar where they played loads of good music right into the night. My family couldn't hear it from the campervan, but I could from my tent. I love the sound of music and people having fun in the distance. It reminds me of camping when I was younger. It wasn't so good at karaoke time though...
Sat 25/07/09
Our first early morning of the holiday, but we decided that it was best so that we could see as much of Venice as possible. We took the bus to the island, which I enjoyed because I like using public transport, especially in other countries!
Venice wasn't what I expected. It was even better.
It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I thought it was really small, with just the main famous square and then a few streets leading off it. I don't know why I ever thought this, because it's pretty much the exact opposite. It's very easy to get lost there... We found the main touristy parts, like St Mark's Square, which unfortunately had some construction work going on in it, so it wasn't quite as spectacular. But we also explored the less touristy places, and found a really nice park to sit and eat the bread we bought from this tiny supermarket.
We also found the most expensive toilets on our travels so far: 1.50 euros EACH! They weren't even very good! Although the cubicles were the size of my bedroom, just with a toilet at one end.
But before this blog turns into a 'Loo Review'...
"Just one Cornetto,Give iiit to meee..."
We spent a nice evening back at the campsite, playing with the kids from next door, who were all so cute and lovely. They had SO much energy and were constantly laughing... They were also jumping about on the rocks next to the lagoon, which scared me a lot, being the over- imaginative wimp I am... I mean, the youngest was about 1, the oldest was only about 7! We were hoping to play swingball, but the swiss family who were also our neighbours asked if they could play on it and ended up doing so all night... Still, Dora and the Dad from next door managed to finish off their tournament by the light of our campervan's brake light. The Dad ended up winning, but ah well.
I sat for a long time on the rocks by the lagoon, just looking out across it to Venice. It was so beautiful. I will never forget it.
I sat for a long time on the rocks by the lagoon, just looking out across it to Venice. It was so beautiful. I will never forget it.
Back to the present, and tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for for the past two years, so I had better get some sleep for it...
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Summer '09: Part One.
So, in my last post (which was quite a long time ago- I need to get a grip...) I said I would talk about my holiday in a later post. This is a later post and, since it has now been three weeks since I came back from my holiday, I think it's about time I document it before I completely forget.
I did kinda keep a diary during the trip, which I wrote by the light of my iPod in my tent each night before I went to sleep, so I'm now trying to decipher the scrawl to help me :)
And to make it more digestible/ less for me to write, this blog comes in an as-yet-undetermined number of parts.
I did kinda keep a diary during the trip, which I wrote by the light of my iPod in my tent each night before I went to sleep, so I'm now trying to decipher the scrawl to help me :)
And to make it more digestible/ less for me to write, this blog comes in an as-yet-undetermined number of parts.
Mon 20/07/09
We set off in our campervan, prepared for the 17 hour drive we had in front of us. We drove down to Folkestone, which took about four hours, where we ate some food before getting on the channel tunnel train. I really like the channel tunnel. It's fast and simple, and if you book in advance, probably the cheapest option too. There's no sea sickness involved, like on a ferry, and I don't think they accept campervans as luggage on planes, so we might have had a problem there. All we had to do was sit in our own van for half an hour and there we were, in another country.
That other country was France. This was the main part of our drive- we drove from Calais, through Belgium and Luxembourg, then came back into France, before stopping just south of Metz for a break. My Dad was driving the whole way, as we thought it would be better doing the whole drive in one go. His girlfriend had sat in the passenger seat up until this point, but now it was 10 pm, so I swapped with her to do 'the graveyard shift' of navigating, which wasn't really necessary since we had the sat nav, but otherwise my Dad would've been driving in the early hours of the morning whilst everyone else was fast asleep, which I didn't think was fair. Also, I really LOVE driving at night, and I'm so glad I stayed awake.
We drove past Strasbourg and into Switzerland, which is so pretty at night, because you can see all of the lights on the mountains. However, it was even prettier at dawn, with the sun coming up over the mountains. Beautiful.
We set off in our campervan, prepared for the 17 hour drive we had in front of us. We drove down to Folkestone, which took about four hours, where we ate some food before getting on the channel tunnel train. I really like the channel tunnel. It's fast and simple, and if you book in advance, probably the cheapest option too. There's no sea sickness involved, like on a ferry, and I don't think they accept campervans as luggage on planes, so we might have had a problem there. All we had to do was sit in our own van for half an hour and there we were, in another country.
That other country was France. This was the main part of our drive- we drove from Calais, through Belgium and Luxembourg, then came back into France, before stopping just south of Metz for a break. My Dad was driving the whole way, as we thought it would be better doing the whole drive in one go. His girlfriend had sat in the passenger seat up until this point, but now it was 10 pm, so I swapped with her to do 'the graveyard shift' of navigating, which wasn't really necessary since we had the sat nav, but otherwise my Dad would've been driving in the early hours of the morning whilst everyone else was fast asleep, which I didn't think was fair. Also, I really LOVE driving at night, and I'm so glad I stayed awake.
We drove past Strasbourg and into Switzerland, which is so pretty at night, because you can see all of the lights on the mountains. However, it was even prettier at dawn, with the sun coming up over the mountains. Beautiful.
Tues 21/07/09
We soon got to the area we were planning to stay at, Lake Lugano, at around 6 am. We didn't know which campsite we were going to stay at, but since none of them were open yet, we pulled over and had a nap at the side of the road.
We ended up in a very nice campsite just south of the Swiss border in Northern Italy. We could literally step out of the campsite and onto the bank of the lake. The first time I did this, I was speechless. My little brain couldn't quite take in the stunning views of mountains and lakes and... gah. It was just amazing. If I use my technical skills here, I might be able to add a picture...
We soon got to the area we were planning to stay at, Lake Lugano, at around 6 am. We didn't know which campsite we were going to stay at, but since none of them were open yet, we pulled over and had a nap at the side of the road.
We ended up in a very nice campsite just south of the Swiss border in Northern Italy. We could literally step out of the campsite and onto the bank of the lake. The first time I did this, I was speechless. My little brain couldn't quite take in the stunning views of mountains and lakes and... gah. It was just amazing. If I use my technical skills here, I might be able to add a picture...
If only my photography skills could portray the true awesomeness...
That night was the first time I had slept in a tent by myself in a foreign country and the first time that I would be doing it for more than a few nights, so I was pretty excited. XD.
Loser.
Weds 22/07/09
This was the first full day of the holiday, and it didn't actually go too well.
We decided to drive to drive around, to 'look at the lake from another angle'.
Van + small, windy Italian roads which aren't well signposted = disaster.
We got quite lost and couldn't find anywhere to park to get out and look around. We were driving down some quite narrow, steep roads and around hairpin bends. Luckily, my Dad has some experience with this, thanks to the great Cretian 'Stuck-in-a-Nine-Seater-Van Up a Winding Footpath on a Cliff Hundreds of Metres Above the Sea' incident of '05 (it's a long story), but still, we really were fed up when we found ourselves at a dead end and had to do a 1000-point turn in the van to get back up the road whilst loads of impatient Italians beeped their horns at us.
Eventually, we pulled over somewhere to make some sandwiches, and it started to rain. So, we had nap. Then we drove straight back to the campsite.
This time, it was traffic that was our nemesis. The roads were COMPLETELY full. We stopped at a supermarket to buy supplies, but then remembered that we had crossed the border into Switzerland, where they use Swiss Francs and not Euros, which is all we had. Thank god for credit cards, but we have no idea how much we spent...
Back at the campsite, we were all hot and a bit fed up, so we went to the lake. One thing about me is that I don't swim. I just don't like it. I haven't swum in three years, and don't even own a costume, so I wasn't expecting to swim on this holiday.
The rest of my family were swimming, and I stood on the edge, kinda talking to their bobbing heads in the water. My Dad suggested that I just get in fully clothed. I don't know if he was joking or not, but in the end I decided that I would. So I took off my belt (it's too colourful and cool to get damaged :P) and walked straight in, wearing my full length jeans and t shirt.
As I say, I hadn't swum in three years, and I had almost forgotten how to, but I eventually got better, and had fun! I got loads of weird looks from passers- by, and my clothes took days to fully dry, but it was certainly an experience!
Now I must stop, because I am so tired that I just forgot how to spell 'got', so part two of my Italian adventures will continue in another (and hopefully more interesting and concise) vlog soon.
:)
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Return of the Blog.
I've been off the blog for a while, but I have now returned!
*Cue sounds of booing*
This is actually my 50th blog post, which is either very sad or something to be proud of. I'm going with the latter, just to amuse myself.
Although, I must admit that 30 of those posts were written as part of BAEDAARPOM, so I have awesome author Maureen Johnson to thank for that, not myself. But still. Here's to the next 50 crappy posts!
So why have I been away for so long?
Well, apart from general laziness, I have also been on holiday, which I will talk about in a later post.
But first, there is something very important we need to discuss. And by 'we', I of course mean myself and my multiple personalities, as I am sure that I have probably already discussed this matter with my faithful follower Rachel (*waves*) via Facebook.
This matter is Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince, The Movie.
I can quite easily sum this up in one word: disappointing.
I was ever so slightly disappointed with The Order of the Phoenix, because they missed out SO MANY elements of the plot, but the fantastic special effects did make up for that.
But this time, so much was missed out and altered that it just felt wrong.
Now, I know that they can't make it an exact replica of the book, and I'm not expecting them to. Missing out a few elements of the plot, even if they are good elements, is something to be expected of a movie adaptation. But HBP just went too far. So they took away some of the plot elements, probably for timing purposes, but then ADDED IN an ENTIRE SCENE that was just completely and utterly POINTLESS.
I am of course referring to the blowing-up-The-Burrow scene. I'm not going to go too much into it, as, as you can probably tell, it annoys me. But I will just say one word on it: WTF!?
Also, the whole Ginny/Harry GROSSNESS was just quite freaky.
The final scene was also RUBBISH. There was no big battle- in fact, the death eaters just walked away! And I didn't even cry when Dumbledore died. I cry at 'Cheaper by the Dozen', so that just proves that something was wrong.
People seem to be pretty divided about it. And whilst I may not particularly like it as a Harry Potter film, I have to admit that it is a good film, as films go. I just hope that the next two films really do live up to expectations...
*Cue sounds of booing*
This is actually my 50th blog post, which is either very sad or something to be proud of. I'm going with the latter, just to amuse myself.
Although, I must admit that 30 of those posts were written as part of BAEDAARPOM, so I have awesome author Maureen Johnson to thank for that, not myself. But still. Here's to the next 50 crappy posts!
So why have I been away for so long?
Well, apart from general laziness, I have also been on holiday, which I will talk about in a later post.
But first, there is something very important we need to discuss. And by 'we', I of course mean myself and my multiple personalities, as I am sure that I have probably already discussed this matter with my faithful follower Rachel (*waves*) via Facebook.
This matter is Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince, The Movie.
I can quite easily sum this up in one word: disappointing.
I was ever so slightly disappointed with The Order of the Phoenix, because they missed out SO MANY elements of the plot, but the fantastic special effects did make up for that.
But this time, so much was missed out and altered that it just felt wrong.
Now, I know that they can't make it an exact replica of the book, and I'm not expecting them to. Missing out a few elements of the plot, even if they are good elements, is something to be expected of a movie adaptation. But HBP just went too far. So they took away some of the plot elements, probably for timing purposes, but then ADDED IN an ENTIRE SCENE that was just completely and utterly POINTLESS.
I am of course referring to the blowing-up-The-Burrow scene. I'm not going to go too much into it, as, as you can probably tell, it annoys me. But I will just say one word on it: WTF!?
Also, the whole Ginny/Harry GROSSNESS was just quite freaky.
The final scene was also RUBBISH. There was no big battle- in fact, the death eaters just walked away! And I didn't even cry when Dumbledore died. I cry at 'Cheaper by the Dozen', so that just proves that something was wrong.
People seem to be pretty divided about it. And whilst I may not particularly like it as a Harry Potter film, I have to admit that it is a good film, as films go. I just hope that the next two films really do live up to expectations...
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